A guide to cuttlefish species found in Australian waters

Prior to 2015, our work focused on studying and understanding the life and trials of the northern Spencer Gulf population of Sepia apama, the giant Australian cuttlefish- central to the story of our documentary film. This species is one of at least six species of cuttlefish found in South Australian waters– and far less is known about the remaining other five, most of which inhabit deeper waters. While studying the other cuttlefish of South Australia, we compiled this chart, which lists all the cuttlefish species known to inhabit Australian waters. There are temperate species, tropical species and some constrained to very specific regions, like the waters around Lord Howe Island. We are not aware of any single resource which provides a photographic guide to the living animals or their cuttlebones, which is a task we will consider undertaking once our film is complete in 2016. There is much to learn about cuttlefish, and we hope to stimulate study and appreciation of these wonderful animals in any way we can.

Here is a table listing the various species of cuttlefish found around Australia along with some basic information. The data is aggregated from three sources: the Atlas of Living Australia, the Australian Museum and species-specific articles on Wikipedia. If you have images of any of these species from diving, snorkeling, beach-combing or scientific work, please let us know. We plan to revise and expand upon this resource as new information becomes available.

Species names link out to pages for each species at the Atlas of Living Australia.